


Acts of Contrition

by Misachan



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Episode: s07e17 Born Again Identity, M/M, Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-10
Updated: 2012-04-10
Packaged: 2017-11-03 09:26:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/379868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Misachan/pseuds/Misachan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean knows why it always winds up this way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Acts of Contrition

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the comment_fic prompt [travelling kisses across a lover's body](http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/331051.html?thread=58936107#t58936107).

Dean wonders sometimes why Castiel always seems to wind up broken.

Other times Dean knows. The nights he's downed too much whiskey to drive but not enough to pass out he remembers Castiel walking into that barn like a thing made of shadow and lightning, power wrapped in skin he wore like armor. Remembers Castiel before he'd found those faint little cracks running through that armor, before he just couldn't stop himself from driving a wedge in deep and prying those cracks open until what was left spattered red and wet all over a writer's living room.

There's no stable ground. It seems like barely a blink of an eye passes between Cas standing next to him strong and whole and _happy_ (how rare is that?) to Cas spread beneath him on a hard bed in a drafty cabin, to Cas swearing as Dean traces his way down from scar to scar to scar. Dean doesn't let himself wonder how many of those scars he'd put there. All of them, really. Dean pushes that aside as he strips off layers until what's been hiding beneath the drugs and the sex is laid bare for the first time in years and Cas arches beneath him, Dean's name on his lips and his eyes wide.

And then there's this new hell now, Dean finding Castiel hiding in his dreams limp and wrung out like a shipwreck survivor who's just clawed his way to shore; he's dressed in hospital grays with that filthy coat of his wrapped around him like a shield, the one Dean saved all those months because as much he'd dreaded finding Cas again he'd known _not_ finding him would always, always be worse. "It's quiet here," Cas murmurs, sighing as Dean turns him over. Not that he has to say anything - while Castiel's still never mastered the concept of personal space, or asking permission for that matter, deep down Dean's never really wanted him to. Dean traces his tongue around the edge of his lower lip before trailing his way down, leaving a line of soft, wet kisses that linger at the hollow of his throat, the curve of his collarbone, just over his heart. He works across Castiel's body until the trembling stops, until he can see flashes of the angel again and feels Cas' hands go tight in his hair. He whispers _Dean_ low and rough and raw, the same way he had the first night Dean cracked that armor wide and climbed inside like he belonged there.

Castiel built him back up from nothing more than bones and dust once. Dean's more than willing to return the favor.

-fin-


End file.
